My Love for Cloth Diapers

I love cloth diapering my son! it has turned out to be amazingly cost effective for us, great for the environment, my baby’s skin, and overall its been a positive experience. its not as messy or as horrible as i grew up thinking it would be. if you are gonna considering it i would encourage you to consider it harder. 

A couple of weeks ago my husband and i decided to see how much we save by not just cloth diapering but also by practicing Elimination Communication. the results really impressed it. We happen to do it on a week when Harvey was going to be babysat twice so he did use some disposables and missed a few Pottytunities but non the less we were still rather impressed. Over 7 days we saved 70 diapers. 20 diapers alone were saved simply because he sat on a toilet instead of going in his diaper and 10 diapers were saved because well he communicated to use the potty before he had a wet or dirty diaper. when we calculated it out we figure we save close to a $1000 a year just in the use of cloth diapers. amazing when you think about it! now what to do with that $1000?!?!?

We often get asked about our cloth diapers which ones we like, what we have tried and what works and doesn’t work for us. For us we use G-diapers during the day with a prefold for the insert (basically we just use the G-diaper as a cover, i am sure there are more cost effective covers but we got the flush-able starter kit and have continued to use the covers with our prefolds). this works well for us as we our often putting harvey on the potty. they Velcro in the back, have a great fit, and we have had no trouble with leaks (well once when he was at a babysitters but i don’t think she understood how to change cloth). For night time we have Bamboozels which we love!!!!! i can’t tell you how much we love them. they are so soft and absorbent and the more they are washed the more absorbent they become. we also have pocket diapers (Fuzi bunz and swadle bees) we use these at night mostly and sometimes during the day. i like the pockets because i can change the absorbency depending on the insert i use, and i feel like the get cleaner than an all in one would because the insert is removable. We intend to try some AIO’s in the future though for when harvey goes to babysitters as they are more like using a disposable. we have also found that cloth diapering would not work for us if we didn’t have our bumgenious diaper sprayer and our charlie’s soap (which has lasted well past the 80 loads listed on the outside).

if you want to learn more about cloth diapering, or earn a chance to win some cloth diapers check out these two blogs… http://bit.ly/k0QzN http://www.diaperdaisy.com/  http://bit.ly/dXfkv

 

Happy diapering!

my can’t live without baby musts!

I have been kinda meeting to write this for a while now, a friend asked me what she thought were the musts when registering and i have been going about our day looking at all the things we use and this is the list i have come up with. these are the things that were a must for us.

1) first of all we use a bed and a carseat these are a must!

2) we use or awesome rockstart baby stroller, its great cause it has a bassinet for when the baby is little, then as he gets bigger it has a toddler seat, it also has an attachment for the car seat. basically its a frame and each peice snaps on its awesome! similar to a buggaboo or a maxi cosi

3) diapers- we love cloth! we use pocket cloth diapers and bamboozels with covers. but we also use gdiapers with prefolds as inserts. cloth has come a long way its not as messy as you would think and they are a money saver. plus they are comfy and healthy for baby. if you do use disposables we love seventh generation but not for newborn they pee to much and seventh generation abosorbs different than pampers which turns the liquid into gel.  if you do use cloth a diaper sprayer is a must! it helps get them clean! no need to soak just spray and throw into the wash.

4) we have a potty at the top of our list, cause well we EC. it works great for us and if you want to know more about EC i’m happy to share a great resource is diaper free baby (a book)

5) a highchair for feeding, we do some purees so a blender is a must but we also practice baby-lead weaning so we give harvery straight up carrot sticks and it works great! he totally eats them, either way spoons, bowls, bibs a sippy and a high chair are a must

6) we have a graco swing that our car seat can snap onto, it also comes iwth a seat that reclines and vibrates it is great because when baby is asleep in car you can bring them in and plop them on swing and they can keep moving keeping them asleep. it also comes with a swaddle blanket that works with the harness!

7) thermal blankets… awesome for swaddling, swaddeling is a must! it is so comforting to them and they sleep so much better no spontanious body movments to wake them. seriously do it until they can roll over.

8) a wrap and an ergo (don’t get a baby bjorn buy an ergo! its better for the baby ergonomically and better on your back!) wearing your baby is not spoiling them despite what some might want you to think. a wrap is great its versitle and comfy and babys love the close ness its very womb like. an ergo is great cause its better for the baby’s little body and it can be used up until they are big like 2 or 3 or longer depending on the kid. you can wear it front, hip, or back and wear an infant. it has a a couple differnt pack attachments to give you more pockets and can be used for everything from around the house to hicking. try it once you’ll never go back to a silly bjorn that won’t last you more than a couple months and is bad for babys hips and spine. you can buy an ergo here…Purchase ERGO baby carriers here 

9) an excersaucer/jumper/bouncer/boppy/playmat all are great for entertaining baby and even if he only plays for 20 min a day by himself with one of these thats 20 min of time to yourself and 20 min of independnce for him. beyond that they are great for when you need to cook baby can watch you, the dog, he can snack. some babys will have a prefernce of these things and thats ok but until baby is here you won’t know which is best for them, also some might like a particular bouncer over another bouncer for example. so try a few if you can.

10) the best for last! an angel car monitor. soooooo worth the money it monitors baby’s movement so if baby stops breathing it will alarm you and it works oh does it work! you can make it just sound but i got to tell you i sleep better at nite not worrying about SIDS.

 

well thats the top 10 things that i say are a must for getting started with baby! atleast for us they were the best! 

enjoy your new little one!